My dad

Hi Fairyglen and welcome to our community.

My experience with cancer is through my wife and of course a different cancer, while here you might get specifics for what your dad has you might also like to introduce yourself in our Family and friends forum and/or Carers only forum as there are more active and perhaps a bit more focused on our supporting role and the impact it has on us.

I got a lot of help from my local Maggies centre and from doing a living with less stress course. It helped me focus on the here and now and appreciate what we have rather than spending too much time focusing on what might happen in the future - and I was much better at imaging things much worse than things actually turned out. 

I find the information in Your feelings when someone has cancer quite helpful in recognizing these emotions as normal in the world we now live in and that helps me feel less overwhelmed. 

<<hugs>>

Steve

Hi, I just wanted to say hello and that I'm in the same situation as you - my dad has also just recently been told this news. We found out within the last month and are trying to get our heads around it. I'm desperately looking for any way I can help him. How are you and your dad doing? X

Hi Kitty

Sorry to hear about your dad. My dad has recently been taken off the hormone therapy tablets as they're not working anymore and the disease has progressed further. Hes having a blast of radiotherapy next week into his lower spine and hip as the cancer is really bad there. After that there's no further treatment really. We're all ok thanks, just taking each day as it comes . Hope your dad is doing OK. It's different for everyone.  Always hear if you want to chat xx

Hi Fairyglen,

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I'm truly sorry to hear about what your dad is going through and hope that the radiotherapy helps him next week.

It's all pretty new for us as Dad has only just started with the hormone treatment so I guess we see how that goes...he has an appointment at the beginning of September but I'm not even sure what that's for at the moment. They've talked about radiotherapy too but don't know when that's happening. I feel really scared about it all and just don't know what to expect. You're right, it is different for everyone but I really appreciate you messaging as it sounds like we're in similar situations. I'm always happy to chat too xx

Hi. I do have secondary bone cancer (thankfully it seems happy to stay in my C7 vertebrae for now) which has caused almost intolerable shoulder and arm pain. I have received a short course of palliative radiotherapy which was a big help. They give you a CT scan to work out where to aim the beam but the treatment itself - in my case - was a matter of minutes. I went for five consecutive treatments bar a weekend break. Got a bit of a pain spike (not uncommon) and then things settled down and I can now manage with pain killers.

My oncologist has also started me on a course of Denosumab which helps maintain bone density. I have to take a calcium and Vitamin D supplement too. Your teeth need to be in good order so you’re required to have a dental check-up before it can be prescribed but might be worth discussing with the care team. It is not a chemo drug or pain medication and principally used in the treatment of osteoporosis I believe.

Hi there. Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm really sorry to hear about what you're going through and am glad to hear that your treatment is helping in some way. 

My dad hasn't been offered radiotherapy yet, just the hormone therapy injection at the moment. But I'm worried that he needs the radiotherapy asap as it seems the most effective. I guess they know what they're doing. I wonder if he can ask for Denosumab as he's not been given that yet either. He is taking his own vitamin D though in the meantime. I think he'll know more after he sees the oncologist again in September as he only had his diagnosis last month. I just hate the waiting around and wish that he could just get on with having more treatment.